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I look closer. “This can’t be right.” My mind reels with the name written there.
“This is the paperwork for the shipment of when you came across. Maybe it can help you.” Rosa waves a hand, like she just wants me to have all the information even if it’s not valuable.
“Maddox Securities?”
Rosa puts on her glasses to take a closer look. “That’s the name of the company, have you heard of it?”
My heart splits as I try to keep my composure in front of Rosa. “Yeah, I think I’ve heard of it.” I stare at the paperwork in disbelief. “I have to go,” I tell Rosa, thanking her as I leave her house.
Dean’s company was the one who ensured I made it to America? Dean’s the one who worked side by side with Bishop to enslave women. How could he not tell me?
Has this all been one big lie?
I make my way back to his place, thinking the entire way. When I step into the front foyer of his condo, I worry that when we find Bishop, Dean won’t be able to go through with it. What else has Dean been hiding from me?
I feel dizzy and heartbroken. Like never before.
I can’t even look him in the face right now. I want Rosa to be wrong about this. I want this whole thing to go away.
Being taken away from my home was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I was lucky enough to get away. I escaped, just barely making it out with my life. But what about the other women?
They weren’t lucky like me.
Are they even still alive?
I shudder at the thought, wishing I could find them to set them all free. No woman should ever live that lifestyle.
These women were still enslaved and I need to do something about it.
I remember when I was young, being taken to the man who would take my virginity. Rosa held the door open to the hotel room, her eyes full of unshed tears.
“You need to leave here. This is no life for you.”
I swore to her I wouldn’t survive, but she told me I was strong. She was with me when I traveled to the Blake Hotel. I spotted the man from far away. The man who bought me.
The man who’d have his wicked way with me.
I couldn’t do it.
I cried to Rosa.
He’d received my picture weeks prior and put in a top-dollar bid for my virginity, and I was to succumb to him fully.
I was scared, and Rosa helped me that night. She helped me escape but I wasn’t able to help anyone else.
Life had never been grand, but at least I was away from Bishop’s stronghold.
Now I find out my misfortune was at the dirty hands of Dean Maddox.
Chapter 22
Dean
* * *
There’s a mood of darkness that enters the condo with Sophia.
“Is everything ok?” I ask, but it’s like she doesn’t even hear me. I step closer to her, reaching out to touch her.
“Don’t touch me,” she snaps back.
“Sophia, what’s going on?”
She stares at me, like daggers shooting out of her eyes right at me. “Maddox Securities? That’s you, right?”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Right, so?”
“So, you’re the reason so many of us women were sold into slavery, Dean. You’re the reason I’ll never see my family again.” Tears flood her eyes.
“Whoa, what are you talking about?”
“Your company helped Bishop ship us on shipping containers.”
My mind goes into overdrive. Like a short-circuit. It can’t be true.
Every man has lines he never crosses. Yeah, even a man like me.
Yes, back in the past, before Bishop was evil, I did a few odd jobs for him, but I don’t remember selling women into sex slavery being on that list of things I did. “No, that’s not right. I’d never take part in anything like that.”
“But you did.”
I reach out to her, trying to touch her, comfort her in some way. She backs up from me, and her face shows her disgust in me. “Sophia, you know me. You know I’d never…” my words fail me when it dawns on me that I do remember shipping containers from Europe over to America for Bishop. It was years ago, and he never said what was in the containers, and I never asked. That’s how I did my business. People do illegal things, and honestly, I never thought it could be anything this horrible.
“I don’t know you. I could never know a man who would do such awful things.”
I reach out again. “I had no idea, trust me. We were importing wine and olive oil.”
“What kind of man doesn’t ask? Didn’t you check the goods? You ruined my life.”
“Sophia, believe me. I didn’t know,” I tell her, but it’s like she’s no longer listening to me.
She brushes past me, into the back bedroom. “I have to go.” She packs up a few of her things.
